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Customer Loyalty with Quality Tracking
You’ve won a customer and fulfilled their first order—great! But what’s next? How can you keep that customer coming back for more? Customer loyalty is how Additive Manufacturers grow their business and pick up steam, but it’s not easy. Customers will only stick around as long as you keep them happy by fulfilling their orders on time and without issues—and at a fair price. Even if you are sending high-quality product, a customer may shop around if your prices are too high.
Since Additive Manufacturing (AM) is an emerging technology, clients are naturally going to be wary when it comes to jumping in with both feet. Many remain skeptical about the lack of material and testing standards. Additive Manufacturers may have to win over a customer multiple times or sweeten the deal with higher levels of service and transparency to continue winning orders and preventing customers from going back to more traditional methods for their manufacturing needs.
Increasing customer loyalty is an integral part of building a more profitable, sustainable Additive Manufacturing business, and it is the company’s responsibility to look within their own day-to-day operations to find ways to keep customers happy. When thinking about how to work within your business’s existing framework to develop stronger customer service and relations, what should you be considering? Are you doing everything in your power to deliver products that meet all of the client’s specifications? Are you running an efficient manufacturing floor so you can offer the best price possible to your customers? Ask yourself these and other questions so you know how to evaluate your current system and offerings.
Clients want good communication from their manufacturing partners. They want to know the status of their order, when it will be shipped, when it will arrive, and who is handling it. Customer loyalty increases when they feel like you are loyal to them. Do this by being proactive in your interactions with them and showing how valuable they are to you. Customers are loyal to manufacturers who meet their needs and see them as more than a dollar sign.
There are still many hurdles to be overcome by the Additive Manufacturing industry before it can make a meaningful dent in the profits of more traditional manufacturers and move beyond its typical prototyping use case. Additive Manufacturers should strongly commit to implementing internal quality standards in the absence of clearly defined industry standards geared toward Additive Manufacturing. With an eye on serving this industry, Bluestreak | Bright AM has developed MES/QMS software that has been designed specifically to help AM companies.
Bluestreak | Bright AM is a powerful tool for Additive Manufacturers that brings all their manufacturing processes and quality control specifications under one roof. The data flows directly from the production floor to the software, allowing manufacturers to track orders from raw material to shipping. All this data is useful for showcasing your ability to follow rigorous quality standards and deliver on time. Bluestreak | Bright AM allows users to produce an audit trail and certification that they are adhering to a strict quality control process and delivering a product that falls within spec.
In addition to advanced quality and audit tools, Additive Manufacturers can tap into the power of Bluestreak | Bright AM’s Customer Connector module and the iDeliver module to offer the best possible customer service. Incorporate real-time shop floor tracking to give clients peace of mind that their order is being fulfilled on schedule. Manufacturers who purchase the Customer Connector module from Bluestreak | Bright AM open a new door for sharing data and transparency with customers. They have the power to share more real-time order tracking details. They can also offer 24/7 access to order status, certification statements, work order history, and other information that they feel will help put their clients’ minds at ease.
Real-time data from the production floor allows you to run a more efficient operation. The data also supports quality control and quick corrective actions when something does go awry. Real-time tracking of every movement on the shop floor makes it easier to build a reputation as a manufacturer that clients will want to partner with because your processes will constantly improve.
Harness your real-time data with Bluestreak | Bright AM to improve the quality of your work and stay in compliance with client specifications. Then, turn around and use the software to build stronger relationships with your clients with transparency and better communication. In the long term, you will become a valuable partner to your customers because they will know that they can count on you to deliver exactly what they ordered.
Bluestreak | Bright AM is designed exclusively for the Additive Manufacturing industry. Our best-of-class MES and QMS solutions bring quality control management to new levels. Contact Bluestreak | Bright AM today for a free demo!